Different but the Same: Landscape and the Gothic as Transnational Story Space in Jane Campion's Sweetie (1989) and Lucrecia Martel's La Cienaga (2001)

Abstract

This paper considers the work of the Argentinian film-maker Lucrecia Martel and the Australian film-maker Jane Campion in a transnational context. In doing so, it focuses on landscape and the elements of the Gothic in their work to explore notions of universal cinematic storytelling that are essential to the exploration of the transnational film. Transnational film theory directs the focus away from the national cinema paradigm towards a more expansive cinema in which locally specific stories reach global audiences. Lucrecia Martel’s La Ciénaga (The Swamp) (2001) has been discussed through the lens of feminist film, social and cultural history, and as a site for the exploration of class and ethnicity. Jane Campion’s Sweetie (1989) has been discussed in terms of mise en scène and female space, the suburban, and insights into national identity and the Gothic and postcolonial. This paper considers intersections in these works and the film-makers' deployment of the narrative and formal elements of film in a universal storytelling context informed by landscape and the Gothic, making their films both locally specific and globally relevant.